What's Your Backstory?: Native Path's Dr. Chad Walding

Summary

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The Dr. Laura Podcast – "What's Your Backstory?: Native Path's Dr. Chad Walding"

Date: April 13, 2026
Host: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Guest: Dr. Chad Walding, Co-founder of Native Path

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Overview

This episode of The Dr. Laura Podcast kicks off a new interview series, "What's Your Backstory?" Dr. Laura sits down with Dr. Chad Walding, co-founder of Native Path, to discuss how his journey through ancestral health, physical therapy, and firsthand experiences with Amazonian tribes shaped his approach to wellness. The conversation blends personal stories, practical health insights, and a live musical moment from the Amazon.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Origins of Native Path and Ancestral Health

[00:51 - 02:39]

• Dr. Laura inquires about the inspiration behind Native Path.
• Dr. Walding traces the name and philosophy to ancestral health, influenced by Weston A. Price’s research on indigenous diets and health:
  • "He found...they had perfectly straight teeth and they had no cavities and they also had really good health. Very low rates of heart disease and cancer and diabetes." – Dr. Chad Walding [01:55]
  • Observed stark health contrasts between communities with native diets vs. those consuming modern, processed foods.
• Dr. Walding applied these principles in his career, changing his own lifestyle and seeing benefits in his patients.

Balancing Modern Enjoyment and Native Wisdom

[03:15 - 04:09]

• Dr. Laura playfully debates the trade-off between health and culinary pleasure:
  • "Are you going to try to tell a girl who's half Italian just to give up pasta?" – Dr. Laura [02:39]
  • Walding suggests and jokes about alternatives rather than full deprivation.
• Walding emphasizes that living healthier doesn’t have to feel restrictive:
  • "Most people who eat the way I eat, we don't feel like we're giving up anything." – Dr. Chad Walding [03:36]
• Example dinner: steak, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and “lots of butter” [03:53]

Immersion with Amazon Tribes

[04:09 - 06:25]

• Dr. Walding recounts his month-long stay with a remote Amazonian tribe in Brazil:
  • Participated in a rite of passage: isolation in a hut, minimal food and water.
  • Learned about tribal customs, community rituals, and the centrality of song for cultural connection.
  • "They come together, sit around a fire and sing songs...that’s how they do it." – Dr. Chad Walding [05:12]
• Reflected on the physical and psychological challenges, ultimately returning with deep gratitude for modern conveniences and a new perspective on personal responsibility and community.

The Impact of the Experience at Home

[09:01 - 09:18]

• Dr. Laura asks about the effect on Walding’s wife:
  • "She missed me a lot...They say distance makes the heart grow fonder." – Dr. Chad Walding [09:05]

Music as Cultural Connection

[09:22 - 11:26]

• Dr. Chad shares his musical inclination, singing a traditional Amazonian tribe song ("saiti"):
  • Songs are considered prayers, handed down generations.
  • The tribe taught him songs as part of their initiation and communal tradition.
  • Walding performs a gratitude song for the sun, forest, and birds [11:25].
• Significance: "It's really just an expression of nature, gratitude for nature and all things around us." – Dr. Chad Walding [11:29]

Collagen, Bone Broth, and Modern Deficiencies

[11:42 - 13:45]

• Dr. Walding highlights collagen as a key ancestral nutrient, largely missing from modern diets:
  • "In our modern world, we're extremely deficient in it."
  • Traditional diets included regular consumption of bone broths (source of collagen).
  • Clinical experience: improved healing in patients using collagen supplements, especially pre/post-surgery.
• Native Path’s products use grass-fed, antibiotic-free cows, focusing on type I and III collagen (“what makes up 90% of the collagen in your body”) [12:50].
• Dr. Laura notes: "I like that it mixes in water...it becomes totally clear. It has no taste. So I don’t feel like I’m taking medicine.” [13:45]
• Chad affirms supplement versatility: add to coffee, tea, or even pasta!

Dr. Laura's Appreciation & Series Intro

[14:15 - 14:47]

• Dr. Laura thanks Walding for being the inaugural guest in her new "What's Your Backstory?" interview series.
  • Praises Walding’s journey and entrepreneurial spirit: "I got enthralled with your history." – Dr. Laura [14:38]
  • Commits to continue using Native Path collagen.

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• [01:55] Dr. Chad Walding on ancestral health:
  “What he [Weston A. Price] found is they had perfectly straight teeth and they had no cavities and they also had really good health. Very low rates of heart disease and cancer and diabetes.”

• [02:39] Dr. Laura’s humor about pasta:
  “Are you going to try to tell a girl who's half Italian just to give up pasta?”

• [03:36] Dr. Chad Walding on healthy eating:
  “Most people who eat the way I eat, and it's a lot of people, we don't feel like we're giving up anything.”

• [05:12] Dr. Chad Walding on Amazonian community ritual:
  “They come together, sit around a fire and sing songs...that’s how they do it, you know.”

• [07:29] Dr. Chad Walding, on gratitude song:
  "It's really just an expression of nature. Gratitude for nature and all things around us."

• [12:50] Dr. Chad Walding on Native Path collagen:
  "It's type one and type three collagen. So type one and type three is what makes up 90% of the collagen in your body. And as we age, it's so important that we get collagen in our diet..."

• [14:38] Dr. Laura's closing thought:
  “I got enthralled with your history. So thank you very much for presenting with us today. And I'll keep drinking it.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:51 — Dr. Laura introduces Dr. Chad Walding and Native Path
• 01:40 — Walding explains Native Path’s name and philosophy
• 04:09 — Walding recounts his Amazon tribe experience
• 09:01 — Walding discusses the impact on his marriage after returning home
• 09:32 — Chad sings a traditional Amazonian gratitude song
• 11:42 — Insights on collagen, bone broth, and modern nutrition
• 14:15 — Dr. Laura thanks Dr. Chad and wraps up the interview

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Recap

This episode provides a fascinating glimpse into how ancient wisdom and modern science can inform healthier lifestyles. Dr. Chad Walding’s stories from the Amazon and his grounding in physical therapy enrich Native Path’s approach, while Dr. Laura’s curiosity and humor make for an engaging and accessible conversation. The episode is equal parts practical health advice, cultural anthropology, and personal reflection.

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Transcript

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[Dr. Chad Walding]

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[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

I'm Dr. Laura Schlesinger and I'm going to be doing a series of interviews called what is your best backstory? I'm most interested in that. So today we're going to talk to Dr. Chad Walding. He's co founder of Native Path and a health expert. And he's taken a really unique path, literally. From studying human movement and performance to spending time with indigenous tribes in the Amazon. Chad brings fascinating perspective on how our modern lifestyles may be working against us and what we can do to get it back on track. Native Path, I use your products. I'm counting on them to have incredible powers. But mostly I was concerned. Where did you get the idea? Native Path? I mean, where does that name come from?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Oh, gosh, you know, what speaks to the way native people were eating and moving and living? You know, as a physical therapist early in my career, I became very interested in ancestral health. I read this book by a man named Weston A. Price. He, he was a dentist in the 20th century and he studied these native people all around the world. And what he found is they had perfectly straight teeth and they had no cavities and they also had really good health. Very low rates of heart disease and cancer and diabetes. But he was observing people living down the road with the same genetic profile who were eating modern foods. White flour, white sugar, the refined stuff. And they were having crooked teeth and bad health. This caught my attention because as a physical therapist in the conventional healthcare world, I was seeing all kinds of heart disease and cancer and diabetes and, you know, patients coming to me with high amounts of pain. So I started to change the way I ate. I started to change the way I moved and the way I lived. And I started feeling, wait a minute,

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

are you going to try to tell a girl who's half Italian just to give up pasta?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

No. Maybe it's gluten free pasta. That would be a better step.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

No, no, no, no. Hot bread and butter.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

I'm not going to tell you to take it away. I'm not going to tell you to take away, but thank goodness. But anyway, my point is, I got really interested in this stuff and started giving lectures and clinics on this, and everyone around me started getting really healthy. And I eventually met my business partner, which we can get into, and we created this thing called Native Path, which is all about helping humans eat, move, and live in alignment with their biology, like we're designed to.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Well, you know, I'm thinking living in one of these obscure places with no diseases in my teeth, totally straight, and not having half the fun I have in my life. How do we. How do we balance that? Because these cultures didn't come up with penicillin either. So, yeah, you can live in a very healthy environment, but look what you give up.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Well, I think there's. I think you work with the things that you do, like within the templates that are. That are healthy for you. Because I don't, you know, most people who eat the way I eat, and it's a lot of people, we don't feel like we're giving up anything. There's all kinds of good ingredients and healthy foods that you can eat.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

What are you having for dinner tonight?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Well, I'm having something similar that I had last night. It's going to be a steak, and I'm going to have a sweet potato and some vegetables, and there's going to be lots of butter on there, and I love it.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

What time I'll be there.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Right, right. Well, it's going to be maybe. Maybe a couple hours. Couple hours.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

That sounds wonderful. Now. So you've been seeing the tribes in person in the Amazon? You've actually been there?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

I have actually been there. I had an amazing opportunity. Yeah. In 2018, I went down and lived with a tribe in the Amazon jungle in Acre, Brazil. It was completely offline, completely remote. I went there with five other people, and I lived there for over a month. And I did a spiritual study with them, like a rite of passage that they have in the tribe. So they put me out in a hut, like by myself in the middle of the jungle. There was no netting in there. Bugs were coming in and sleeping with me. It was crazy. I had very little to eat, very little to drink, and lost a lot of weight, as you can imagine. It was a lot of time in isolation, but it was also a lot of time learning about the tribe and the culture and the community. So they would bring us together. You know, they called them little shoohus, little educational centers and tell us about stories in the tribe they would tell us about. They would share songs with us, a big part of this tribe. But what holds them together is actually the songs they get passed down from generation to generation. And whereas in the modern world, you know, we sit around and we watch TV and watch Netflix, what they do in the middle of the night is they come together, sit around a fire and sing songs. And that's how they do it, you know.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

So why did you come back if it was so wonderful?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

I came back because I have a hat. I'm a wonderful wife and a beautiful dog and responsibilities take care of and a beautiful dog.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

I'm glad you didn't say that backwards. Okay.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Yeah. Yeah. Plus, I mean, to be honest with you, I was, I was hungry and thirsty and I, and I missed a lot of the conveniences of the modern world. I missed, I missed air conditioning. I missed, I missed being able to go to the water faucet and just, oh, there's clean water right there. I missed Amazon, where I could just punch a button and something shows up my door. I don't have to do anything for it. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of benefits, you know, for sure. And the whole experience really helped me become very grateful for what I do have. And it's also taught me a whole lot about personal responsibility and, and community and having appreciation for the most simple things of life. I came back a completely different human.

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[Dr. Chad Walding]

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[Dr. Chad Walding]

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[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Well, how did your wife cope with you coming back a completely different human?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Well, she missed me a lot. She really missed me a lot. You know, she. It was. It was like a. A study for her too, to live without me for that long. And we, you know, they say the heart makes you. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.

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We.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

We never like missed in each other more than that moment when it came.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

That's sweet. I understand you are musically inclined.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

I love music. Yeah.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

So do you have something you're going to create some music for us right now?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Well, you know, I mentioned the songs that they. They taught us and if you're open to it, I would love to sing you a song that they taught me.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Please do.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Yeah, so the. The tribe, they call these they song sights. You know, that's like a prayer. And it's usually we've lost a lot of the translations of what these mean, but what they would do for us is they would set us around this fire. They would sing these songs to us. They would have us record it on our phone. Go back to our hut. Practice, practice, practice. And then come back and perform and sing for them the next day. And then they would correct us over and over again. So they had a very big appreciation for the exactness of these sightings. So I would like to sing a Saiti for you now. Okay. It'll just take maybe, maybe 90 seconds. There we go.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

That's beautiful.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Thank you.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Do you know any of the translation from it, do you think?

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Well, so that is, that is a gratitude for the sun, gratitude for the, for the forest, gratitude for the birds. It's really just an expression of nature. Gratitude for nature and all things around us. Yeah.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Hence Native Path.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Native Path, Native collagen.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

I'm expecting all my bones to stay very strong.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Yeah, well, you know, we mentioned like learning about ancestral health and how our ancestors lived. You mentioned collagen. Collagen is something that our ancestors got plenty of because of the way they ate. But in our modern world, we're extremely deficient in it. So our ancestors would, they would hunt, they would, they would take the animals, they would take the bones of these animals, they would put them in big pots with hot water and they would make broth and they would get collagen on a consistent basis. And it's so important for the structure of our body. You know, as a physical therapist, I was looking out for this because people would heal faster if they had strong tendons and strong ligaments and strong bones and good skin. But most people did not have that right. In our modern world, we have an abundance of refined carbohydrates. Low, low nutrition, high toxicity, almost no collagen. So I started recommending to my patients, you know, hey, why don't you try, try some bone broth. You know, why don't you try taking some collagen? And they started to heal faster. They would get better results before surgery, they would heal faster after a surgery. So Native Path, really our flagship product is all based around collagen. Right. So we have. I'm kind of biased, but the purest, most potent form of collagen that you're going to find on the market, it comes from grass fed cows. There's no hor bones, there's no antibiotics in those cows. They're very happy. They eat grass, they roam hills just like animals. Cows are supposed to live and it's type one and type three collagen. So type one and type three is what makes up 90% of the collagen in your body. And as we age, it's so important that we get collagen in our diet because we Produce it naturally. But we produce less and less each year after, say, okay, don't rub it in. Okay, I'm not gonna rub it in. I'm not gonna rub it in. But I do. I do. I'm a big believer in it because I've seen so many people get results. And it's fascinating how quickly people can start to feel better again, especially as they age.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Well, I like that it mixes in water. You let it sit for three minutes, it becomes totally clear. It has no taste. So I don't feel like I'm taking medicine.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Right. It's something you want to add to your routine. And you mentioned water. It dissolves easily. I like to add it to my morning coffee, which is really great. It just mixes right in there. But you can put it in your teas. You could even sprinkle it over your food a couple scoops a day.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Sprinkle it over my gluten pasta.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

You can do that. You can do that. Dr. Laura, thank you so much.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

This has been fascinating, and I so appreciate you are the first individual. And I'm proud to say for my new little podcast series on what's the backstory? I mean, that you're a successful entrepreneur with a product that is very helpful, useful, and just not nonsense. I mean, it really helps people be better is part of the story. But I got enthralled with your history. So thank you very much for presenting with us today. And I'll keep drinking it.

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Thank you.

[Dr. Chad Walding]

Okay. Thank you, Dr. Lohr. I appreciate it. Bye.

[Dr. Laura Schlesinger]

Bye.

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